Richard Sarnoff

KKR

Richard Sarnoff is Managing Director and Head of the Media & Communications industry group for KKR’s Private Equity platform in the Americas. Prior to this position, Sarnoff served as a Senior Adviser to KKR, working closely with both investment teams and portfolio companies.

Until 2011, Sarnoff was Co-Chairman of Bertelsmann, Inc., and President of Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments (BDMI.) A longstanding senior executive at Bertelsmann, Sarnoff served as CFO and EVP of Random House beginning in 1998 and became the first US executive to serve on the Supervisory Board of Bertelsmann AG in 2002. Starting in 2006, he established and ran its corporate digital media investing arm, BDMI, and concurrently served as Chairman of the Association of American Publishers. He was named the publishing industry’s Person of the Year by Publishers Weekly magazine in 2009.

Sarnoff graduated summa cum laude, from Princeton University in 1981 with a BA in Art and Archaeology, and earned an MBA from Harvard University in 1987. He serves on the Board of Directors of Activision Blizzard, Weld North, Cengage, and Chegg; and of not-for-profit organizations including the Bronx Lab School, Princeton University’s Center for Information Technology Policy and New Classrooms/School of One.